Third Honduran journalist gunned down in two weeks

New York, March 16, 2010— Unidentified attackers gunned down Honduran journalist Nahúm Palacios Arteaga in the city of Tocoa on Sunday, the third deadly attack against the Honduran press in the last two weeks, according to news reports. Honduran authorities must put an end to the wave of deadly violence and ensure that the killers are punished, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

“We condemn the murder of Nahúm Palacios Arteaga and urge authorities
to swiftly bring those responsible to justice,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s
senior program coordinator for the Americas. “Rising violence is
seriously limiting crime coverage while depriving Honduran citizens of critical
information on the country’s security.”

Palacios, 34, a journalist for Channel 5 TV and Radio Tocoa
in the Atlantic region, was driving home when two cars pulled alongside his vehicle
at about 10:30 p.m., the local press said. At least two unidentified
individuals fired several times, according to the Honduran press. The
journalist died at the scene, while a companion seated next to him was severely
wounded, news reports said.

Local police told the news media that the gunmen used AK-47
assault rifles, a weapon regularly used by Honduran criminal groups.
Authorities have not disclosed possible motives.

Palacios had reported on drug trafficking, violence, local
politics, and an agrarian conflict between landowners and peasants in the Aguán
region, according to Meri Agurcia, a researcher for the local human rights
group Comité de Familiares Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras. Palacios
had received recent, anonymous death threats, according to the Honduran press
and CPJ sources.

In June 2009, Palacios had been threatened by members of the
military for his critical coverage of the coup that ousted President Manuel
Zelaya, according to Agurcia and local news reports. The journalist’s home and
office were raided and his equipment confiscated in an effort to intimidate him,
press reports said.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an
autonomous body of the Organization of American States, urged the Honduran
government in July 2009 to provide protection for Palacios based on the threats
and harassment, local press reports
said. Honduran authorities, however, didn’t implement the measures recommended by
IACHR. In a press release
issued today, the Inter-American Commission said it deeply regretted the murder
and noted the Honduran government’s failure to carry out measures to protect
Palacios.

Organized crime has made the country’s Atlantic region an
extremely dangerous place for the press, sources told CPJ. On March 11, radio
reporter David Meza was murdered
in the city of La Ceiba,
also in the Atlantic coast, under similar circumstances. A spokesman for the
attorney general’s office told CPJ today that the police are looking at the
journalist’s work as a possible motive.

A third Honduran reporter was also killed this month. On
March 1, reporter Joseph
Hernández Ochoa was slain in Tegucigalpa
in a shooting that left another journalist seriously wounded. CPJ is
investigating whether the killings are linked to the journalists’ work.